Reject compensationoffer for relocation
THE Oshakati Town Council has made N$17 million available to compensate residents of Ehenye village to make way for a housing development, but villagers are refusing to budge.
The villagers have rejected a Cabinet decision to pay them N$5 000 per hectare for their mahangu fields.’Unserviced land in a town cannot cost that,’ a visibly unhappy Charles Amunime told The Namibian at Oneshila settlement yesterday. Amunime is the chairperson of the committee representing villagers on the relocation matter.A meeting on December 18 2009 between Ehenye villagers and the Permanent Secretary of Local Government and Housing, Erastus Negonga, failed to yield results.Negonga allegedly went to explain the new compensation tariffs to the villagers. The compensation for mahangu fields was initially put at N$1 000 per hectare, which the villagers rejected.Amunime said they rejected the higher offer N$5 000 per hectare too.He said in a letter dated January 3 2009, the residents had requested Government to pay them N$150 000 per hectare and this was what they expected Negonga to come to them with.Copies were also sent to the Ministry of Lands, the Office of the Prime Minister and the Oshakati Town Council. According to Amumine, villagers disagreed with Negonga’s argument that people on communal land cannot be paid so much, because it is State land, unlike commercial land where the owners had paid for it.Amunime told The Namibian that the villagers are happy with Cabinet’s offer of compensation for trees and buildings.He said the compensation for corrugated iron structures had been upped from N$50 per square metre to N$75, and for brick buildings from N$400 per square metre to N$3 000.For one marula tree (Omugongo), a person will be paid N$15 000 while one bird plum tree (Omuve) will fetch N$12 600. The Oshakati Town Council said it would compensate about 54 households living at Ehenye. According to council spokesperson Anna Ingwafa, the Council will be paying compensation packages ranging from N$10 000 to N$1,2 million.Those receiving the lowest payments are those who live in shacks and don’t have land.Ingwafa said residents are also entitled to two erven in the same area, which they can do what they please with. The Council will also provide them with transport to any destination of their choice in Namibia. Ingwafa added that not all residents were against the relocation, saying that 17 households had already accepted payment.Since they had been paid before the new rates were approved, they would receive a second payment to make up the difference between the two rates.Negonga could not be reached for comment yesterday since he was still on leave, his mobile phone was switched off and no one at the Ministry could comment on the Ministry’s behalf.
